Gateway Distriparks Ltd. is expected to draw volumes from CONCOR’s Tughlakabad Inland Container Depot Terminal to its Faridabad ICD terminal, which is set to start operations in the current quarter of October-December.The Faridabad ICD terminal of GDL is set up on owned land spread over 66 acres with a capacity of 96,000 TEUs (twenty equivalent units) or containers. GDL is currently operating to ICD terminals at Garhi Harsaru near Gurgaon in Haryana spread over 90 acres and 120,000 TEUs and at Ludhiana spread over 60 acres and 144,000 TEUs capacity.
According to Spark Capital, GDL’s subsidiary Gateway Rail Freight Ltd. is currently utilizing around 40% of the land for its ICD and hence has significant room for capacity expansion at its ICDs.
“Having own terminals (CFSs and ICDs) is an important success factor for CTOs (container train operator) as it helps in providing end-to-end service by way of handling warehousing and last mile transportation, apart from the rail haulage,” said Mr. Mukesh Saraf, analyst with Spark Capital.
GDL management expects some portion of around 35,000 TEUs per month handled by CONCOR’s Tughlakabad ICD to shift to its Faridabad ICD, he added.
CONCOR’s Tughlakabad ICD is the biggest Exim container terminal in North India, located at 17 km South West of Delhi and set up on 137.5 acres of land and handles 4, 00, 000 TEUs per annum.
Further, the trade would benefit from the usage of Faridabad terminal as clearance would take place in Haryana State rather than New Delhi, where the latter has traffic restrictions on trucks.
The rail subsidiary of GDL has so far invested Rs. 700 crores of capital of which 50% was on land, Rs. 250 crores on rakes and Rs. 50 crores on rail licence fee and the balance on equipment.
The company plans to add eight rail rakes when Faridabad terminal becomes operational. GDL management has indicated that it might lease rakes rather than acquire them so that the rake capacity could be substantially raised in case it sees potential of reduction in transit time.
Gateway Rail currently operates 24 rakes with a capacity of 2.4 lakh TEU based on 5.5 days of transit time for a round trip. Potential ICD capacity of 9 lakh TEUs (compared to current capacity of 364,000 TEUs) suggests significant room for growth to add rakes, Mr. Saraf stated.
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